The Storm Report, a newsletter produced by Nathanael Gough, Phil Tietjen and Dori Lloyd
February 10, 2022 | Issue 5

Pet Pandemic Hero of the Week
A brown and white cat sitting quietly inside a circle.
Finn at Rest
Finn has been supporting Suzanne LaVenture throughout the pandemic. "Finn is an evil genius who enjoys tearing up paper, working jigsaw puzzles, sleeping on people's heads, and opening the door handle when people are using the bathroom. He also likes going for walks, though he is mortified by the ridiculous leash his minions bought for him. While he misses his dog Daisy, who passed away over a year ago, he is not eager to share his home with any dumb girl cats. He knows he is very handsome and can understand why girl cats would want to live with him, but he hopes Cat Drader will live forever and he will never have to share his home with anyone other than the stupid humans who feed him and change his box and have warm heads to sleep on." Suzanne LaVenture
A cat named Finn tearing up paper.
Fin at Play
If you would like to have your pet featured in the Storm Report, please send a photo and any text you want included to Nathanael_Gough@davidsondavie.edu.

Enlivening Online Discussions
Do you use discussion forums in your class? Have you found them challenging to engage students with? Here are a few strategies for facilitating greater engagement among students in discussion boards or forums

  • Use Small Groups - - organize class discussions into small groups rather than using one forum for the whole class to post their discussion responses. This reduces duplication and redundancy and allows it to be a more personal experience for students
  • Incorporate Reflection & Multimedia - Ask the groups to reflect on their collective discussions by collaboratively identifying some key insights that they gained from their discussion and how those insights connect to the reading or course material. This reflection can be in the form of a video, podcast (audio), infographic, slide presentation or text
  • Remember the human component! - Rather than immediately beginning each forum discussion with a course-related question, aim to build social presence and community in the class by starting with a question that encourages students to loosen up and engage in some informal sharing (e.g., What was a good streaming show you recently saw? What was a good or rewarding experience you recently had? What is something that made you smile?)

If you’d like assistance with this or anything related to instructional design don’t hesitate to contact us at learning_design@davidsondavie.edu!
MoodleMoo

Moodle Tips
How do I import a course?
Need to import an old course into a new one? See the steps below.
  1. Login to Moodle, turn editing on and go to the Course Administration block
  2. Click "Import"
  3. Select desired course to import (or use the “Search” box to find it) and click “Continue”
  4. Select the desired of the two options: (1) choose “Jump to final step” to import the entire course or (2) choose “Next” to import selected portions (e.g., certain resources, quiz questions)
  5. Click “Perform Import”
For full details, see our video tutorial Importing Content

Zoom Meetings in Moodle Problems
Are you encountering problems or error messages when creating Zoom meetings in your Moodle course sites? A good step to avoid this problem is to first make sure that you have created your Davidson-Davie Zoom account by logging into the Davidson-Davie Zoom account page . Doing this helps signal to the system that you are connected to the Davidson-Davie Zoom account.
Center for Teaching and Learning
Hello, Davidson-Davie Colleagues!

Here are some professional learning opportunities for your consideration.

Free Webinar: Handling Difficult and Disruptive Behaviors Remotely

This webinar is sponsored on-demand by our colleagues in Student Affairs. It provides advice on how to deal with frustrated and difficult students in a remote setting and discusses ways to prevent problems before they start and reduce escalation and conflict.

To read the full description and objectives of the webinar, please see this information handout.


Free Engineering/Industrial Technology NSF Faculty Workshop Series

Northwest State Community College is offering a series of remote workshops with synchronous and asynchronous components focused on incorporating a competency-based hybrid model in advanced manufacturing courses. The workshop descriptions, dates, and times are included in the Scaling CBE Elements Faculty Workshop (PDF) flier.

Achieving the Dream Operationalizing Equity to Inform Teaching & Learning Webinars

All faculty and staff have the opportunity to register for a free webinar series advancing equitable and culturally responsive practices in higher education hosted by ATD. You can read about the details on the ATD webinar website and register to attend the webinars of your choice.

DDCC faculty and staff will have the opportunity to join in learning community discussions about the topics addressed in the webinars. Please complete the Davidson-Davie Operationalizing Equity Google Form if you register for any of the webinar sessions so that we can send you an invitation to the learning community discussions. Please reach out to Gloria Johnson (gloria_johnson@davidsondavie.edu) or Cameron Shirley (Cameron_Shirley@davidsondavie.edu) with any questions about the webinar series.

2022 DDCC Faculty Symposium Call for Presentation Proposals

Do you have teaching practices you’d like to share with fellow faculty? On March 8th from 9AM to 11AM the CTL will be hosting the 2022 DDCC Faculty Symposium. If you would like to participate as a presenter, please submit a symposium proposal (Google form). Priority will be given to proposals submitted by February 10th. The final proposal deadline is February 17th.
2021 - 2022 CTL Advisory Board

At Large: Michael Liu (michael_liu@davidsondavie.edu) (FT), Arts, Science, Business, and Technology: Grant Jolliff (grant_jolliff@davidsondavie.edu) (FT), and Aaron Prillaman (aaron_prillaman@davidsondavie.edu) (PT), Davie: Dee Edwards (dee_edwards@davidsondavie.edu) (FT), and Katrena Wells (katrena_wells@davidsondavie.edu) (PT), Health Sciences: Datra Delk-Patrick (datra_delkpatrick@davidsondavie.edu) (FT), Teaching, Learning, and Global Engagement: Nathanael Gough (nathanael_gough@davidsondavie.edu) (FT), Faculty Chair: Gloria Johnson (gloria_johnson@davidsondavie.edu) (FT)

Share Your Thoughts!
In your online courses, do you send weekly reminders to your students?
Yes
No
Checking Color Contrast
Color Contrast Analyzer Tool
It’s important to have adequate color contrast in any content that you create and distribute to ensure that people with low vision or color blindness can perceive the information. Even people without a color deficiency will appreciate strong color contrast because it’s just easier to read!

A simple way to check contrast is to use the Color Contrast Analyzer. This is a downloadable tool that uses a color picker (eye dropper icon) to pull colors from anything that you create. Once you add two colors, you’ll see a sample of how the colors pair with each other and whether or not they meet contrast requirements. DDCC uses the AA level so you’ll want the colors to “Pass” with green check marks under AA (Bonus points if the colors pass under AAA!) If the color combination results in “Fail,” you’ll need to change one of the colors. 

If you’re unable to download the Color Contrast Analyzer, WebAIM’s Contrast Checker is a great alternative to use. It doesn’t have a built-in color picker, but you can type in the color number or use the sliding color scale. 

Contact Amy Holmes (amy_holmes@davidsondavie.edu) about color contrast questions!
From the Editors: Do You Have a Story to Share?
We are looking for faculty stories! We want to keep the focus of your newsletter on you, the faculty. Would you please help us find those stories? Here are the kinds of things we are looking for:

  1. Faculty who have globalized their courses.
  2. Faculty who are doing something creative in class
  3. Faculty who have received awards
  4. Faculty reporting out on what they got from their professional development (could be written, video, podcast, etc.)
  5. Faculty who have received a new degree
  6. Faculty who are retiring
  7. Faculty Division Chair / Program Director Bios
  8. Faculty sharing their experiences of teaching in an active learning classroom
  9. Faculty Senate initiatives
  10. Faculty who have led overseas trips with students

Please contact one of the editors if you have ideas or referrals for stories.

New and Improved TLG Website
Update
We are excited to share with you our new and improved TLG website! We hope that you will bookmark our site which includes great resources to support teaching and learning.

Visit our subpages to learn more about the program areas represented within our TLG team and how they can support you!


Newsletter Archives

Looking for a previously published article in The Storm Report? Access the archives to find an earlier Issue. Enjoy!

Teaching, Learning & Global Engagement